Skippy moved through the goblin camp, killing any stray goblin he could as he moved through the horde. With all of the dead goblins all around the place, it wasn't hard to hide the bodies. He also made a point to empty out human graves and the slave pens where he could.
He was forced to move so painfully slowly to make sure he wasn't seen or, worse, caught. But moving slowly did have its benefits. As he made his way to the command tent, he started to notice something. There were a lot of dead goblins—more than he had been expecting.
'Are there really this many casualties?' Skippy wondered to himself.
He took a small break to move over to some of the goblin corpses. That's when he realized what was happening. The goblins were deformed by disease. A plague had ripped through their population.
Skippy wasn't worried about catching anything. Goblin diseases didn't affect humans and vice versa. But it was evidence of how powerful the apocalypse force [Plague Mage] was growing. Skippy resolved to kill the man and drop his corpse somewhere no one would find it. He finally approached the main tent.
Skippy finally arrived at a tent, moving closer to a group of goblin fighters that were clustered around small tables. The goblin chief's obese body was placed on a throne of twigs as he observed his people.
Skippy didn't really care; if he wanted to upgrade his class, he needed to kill the goblin chief in one hit. He was pretty confident in managing that. But it would break [Reaper's Cloak]. And then he would be stuck in a room with a bunch of rape-happy goblins. Not a great idea.
He carefully crawled around and collected any weapons not being held or not on a Goblin. He was going to lose his invisibility when he attacked, so he wanted this to be as in his favour as it could be.
Once he was done, he moved to the next one of the goblins who were gambling. These goblins stunk like they hadn't bathed, ever. He had to hold his breath as he moved in closer to the table. He needed to give these goblins a reason to fight each other before the goblin chief did anything. The moment the goblins were looking, he snatched a couple of rare cores off the table and then used [Mirage step] to teleport closer to the goblin chief.
The effect was immediate. When the goblins looked back to the table, they, of course, noticed that most of their money was gone and started accusing each other. Five seconds after that started, one of the goblins slugged the other one. Five seconds after that, someone pulled a knife that had been on his person and stabbed someone. That was when one of the goblins noticed the weapons were missing, and everything turned into a slaughter. Every Goblin in the hall was attacking the other. He had to suppress his laughter as they started killing each other.
Skippy didn't know why, but if he had to guess based on what he remembered of goblins, they probably assumed this was a red wedding situation. Goblin did not give a fuck about killing each other. The chief looked like he was about to intervene. But it was too late. This was too good an opportunity for Skippy, especially with his level 10 Capstone.
DING!!!
"[Perfected Strike]," Skippy whispered as he activated [Unseen Blow] in tandem as he struck at the Goblin's neck.
DING!!!
Skippy felt a slight shudder as he saw just how much damage he inflicted. It was almost orgasmic. He honestly wished he had the time to savour his return to form. But he didn't have time. Instead, he dumped his two skill points into getting even stronger.
DING!!!
Skippy turned to the fighting goblins who had noticed him. Now that his strength had been fixed, it was time for some exercise.
Skippy kicked off the ground, crossing the distance between itself and the goblins in an instant. His long sword pierced clean through the skull of the biggest one, who seemed to be in charge. The others stopped focusing on each other and turned on him, swinging their weapons in desperation, but every single one of them was avoided with minimal effort.
Skippy parried one attack with his blade before decapitating its owner with ease before it kicked another goblin over a table as he turned to engage the other goblins.
Skippy felt like he was dancing. He blocked the first attack and parried it into the attack of the second, then he slashed and stabbed the first goblin with a flourish, killing him instantly. He tried to slash the second goblin, but he blocked it. So he kicked him in the nuts.
Skippy was mildly shocked when the goblin died. That wasn't going to stop him from killing the rest of them. He stopped trying to sword-fight the goblins at some point and just started cleaving through the goblins with his augmented strength.
He charged down the goblins mercilessly, mowing down everyone in sight like a gardener clearing weeds, goblin weeds so that the crops, his levels, may grow and Skippy reap a bounty.
<[Executioner's Judgment] has Reached Level 4>
<[Executioner's Judgment] has Reached Level 5>
<...>
<[Executioner's Judgment] has Reached Level 11>
<[First Blood] has Reached Level 2>
<[First Blood] has Reached Level 3>
<[First Blood] has Reached Level 4>
<[Death or Glory] has Reached Level 2>
<[Death or Glory] has Reached Level 3>
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
<...>
<[Death or Glory] has Reached Level 6>
<[Way of the Reaper] has Reached Level 23>
<[Way of the Reaper] has Reached Level 24>
<[Way of the Reaper] has Reached Level 25>
<[Unseen Blow] has Reached Level 21>
<[Perfected Strike] has Reached Level 11>
<[Perfected Strike] has Reached Level 12>
<[Perfected Strike] has Reached Level 13>
<[Reaper's Cloak] has Reached Level 30>
Skippy might have been in trouble if anyone had bothered to come into the tent. Or if anyone raced outside to alert anyone. That was why he picked up an oil lantern and smashed it to pieces on the side of a tent. Flames quickly started licking up the side of the tent as the goblins tried to kill him.
In less than a minute, Skippy turned the entire inside of the tent red with goblin blood and fire.
“Ahhh, hahahahahaha!” Skippy let out a laugh, utterly drunk on his own power. He had even gotten a ton of level-ups for his bloodline skills, but he ignored them for the moment.
Its newly-acquired Job and related Skills were developing at a mind-boggling pace. How long had it been since he had been able to cut loose and level up like this? It was definitely before the system, but it was so delicious that he almost forgot himself.
“Ahahah! Ahah…. Ahem.” Skippy regained his composure. Even with his elemental resistance, he was still in a burning tent surrounded by goblin corpses and surrounded by a goblin horde. Opening his status, he made his last few purchases using his new skills.
DING!!!
These two skills were the real king killers. It would take forever to reduce their cooldowns to a reasonable number, but it would be worth the wait.
Skippy immediately activated [Reaper's Cloak] and [Mirage Step], exiting the tent through one of the burning holes in the tarp before teleporting again to the roof of a nearby building. He had gotten everything he really wanted from this escapade. He could stick around and get the last four levels to get the capstone. But he could do that anywhere, and he didn't want to keep Tom & Alex waiting.
Using [Mirage step] in rapid succession, Skippy flew across the roofs of buildings. When he approached the meeting spot, he slowed down. There were other people there, four newcomers, and one of them was vividly familiar.
The edge lord with the giant ass scythe who was trying way too hard to look intimidating. It was the same edge lord who attacked their base. Skippy was pretty sure the half-orc next to him was also the guy who had attacked Abaddon and Tom. The other two were unknown. One was a giant of a man in full chainmail with a scimitar slung over his back. He seemed to have an overabundance of soot black hair from what skippy could see and appeared Mongolian, and the final one looked like an elf cosplaying as Voldemort. Skippy couldn't [Identify] them as he didn't have that skill. But Tom did, and he was still in the party, which meant he could access that information.
DING!!!
Well, shit, these people were awful. He absently wondered if he should just kill them. He would have to start with the [Horseman of Conquest] plague magic was a bitch to deal with. Or maybe the [Horseman of War] as he could resurrect them?
That did explain the overabundance of dead goblins. The [Horseman of Conquest] had clearly been power-levelling off the horde, not that it would save him from a combination of [Reaper's Cloak], [Perfected Strike], [Legendary Blow], [Tyrants Die], and [Unseen Blow].
Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, no one was fighting, only talking, and Skippy took the opportunity to be a fly on the wall.
You may skip to the next chapter.
Base
Personal: +4 AGIL +4 PER +3 DEX +3 LCK
Racial: +3 AGIL +2 CON +2 SPIRIT +1 PER
Bloodline: +5 AGIL +5 LCK
Regicide Skills: +6 STR
Level Bonus: +1 to all Stats
Mini-Character List
Skippy: A newborn [Regicide] Assassin
Thomas Bruner: Settlement Leader, Party healer, Protagonist
Alexandra Ling: Tom's best friend, Vice leader, Wizardess
AN: